We think these are things your should know!

If your child is not meeting age or grade level milestones it is best to consult your pediatrician and/or someone at the school. Many times a parent will be told to “wait” or “don’t worry, he’s a boy” but this may be the wrong advice.

When Should You Seek Guidance?

• Children that are behind in language skills at two or beyond should be seen by the pediatrician. 
• If your child is four or five and cannot remember the alphabet or numbers or has difficulty with speaking words correctly.
• If a child is six or seven and has the above and/or is struggling in school, you should talk to the teacher.

If the pediatrician or you decide to talk to the school, start with the teacher first. Ask the teacher how your student is functioning in the class relative to peers. You want the teacher’s honest assessment and if your child is struggling academically or working much harder than the other children to stay on task, your child needs to be evaluated by your pediatrician or by someone at the school.

Public schools use a system called RTI- Response to Intervention which pulls children that are struggling (usually in reading and often dyslexic) out of the classroom for a limited number of weeks. If your child is in RTI, you want to know what testing or evidence led to this decision. You need more information and not assurance that six or eight weeks fixed everything. Have your child read aloud and if it is difficult, slow, or with little emotion, your child needs to be evaluated for dyslexia.

I would look at www.dyslexia1n5.com for more information about dyslexia and how to have your child evaluated.

Education Plans for which the Dyslexic Child is Eligible 

Children with dyslexia are eligible for a 504 plan (accommodations) or an IEP (Individual Education Plan) if the dyslexia is moderate to severe. 504 plans will not guarantee (not a legal document) any educational programs but for a dyslexic child it can include time and a half and text to speech. This will not teach your child how to read but is necessary for any dyslexic as they are smart but “read slowly and with much effort”.

An IEP is a legal document and proscribes the “guaranteed” education for a child with “special needs” such as dyslexia. This is offered at Louisiana Key Academy because we have trained teachers and the specific curriculum for children with dyslexia. Most schools, public or private, do not have this.

The law is on your side even if the school resists your efforts to identify why your child is struggling and get the necessary education for success. For further information about the law and dyslexia contact kreggio@dyslexia1n5.com.  

1.    You want someone who understands dyslexia and understands a child’s strengths and their weaknesses. Teaching them to read and write can be hard so a tutor must let them show off their strengths. It might be a sport, art, music, or loving their pet. Reaffirm constantly.   Be patient.

 

2.    A child must learn they need to pull words apart and connect the written text with the sounds of spoken language. The tutor should understand that dyslexic children can have difficulty with word retrieval, especially if anxious.

 

3.    Your child needs more than an Orton-Gillingham lesson/tutor. These lessons are good but these alone will not suffice. Your child needs to read books that are of interest and that are grade appropriate out loud with the tutor.   Gentle correction from a trusted tutor is important. The tutor should encourage the student to talk about the story after a few pages or a chapter, discuss the vocabulary, and relate it to the child’s interests. Maybe they can write about the story together. Let the child dream about the story and hopefully understand the treasure of reading a book.  

 

4.    The tutor needs to understand that dyslexics often have difficulty in math. Math has language too.   It is not a separate process. Spelling is difficult for dyslexics but reading out loud will help. Tutors should not give spelling tests or spend precious time on spelling.

 

5.    The tutor needs to see your child several times a week for an hour or ninety minutes. Good tutors know dyslexics often have ADD/ADHD and can tutor a child that wiggles or wonders. A good tutor loves and laughs and understands the tremendous potential of your dyslexic child.

Without screening and identification as dyslexic, these children have a greater chance of dropping out of high school, not enrolling in college, earning decreased wages, and a greater likelihood of incarceration. Waiting does not improve their outcomes.

There are two important reasons for universal screening of children in kindergarten and first grade: 

1. An achievement gap is present in the first grade between dyslexic and non-dyslexic students. This gap does not go away and will widen if not the child is not identified as dyslexic and addressed specifically.  

2. Children with dyslexia can be identified in kindergarten and first grade and should be enrolled in an evidence based program like Louisiana Key Academy. 

Standardized testing in 3rd grade and beyond has become the accepted evaluation of student learning and teacher effectiveness. It is said that standardized testing is necessary to prepare children to take the ACT as a junior in high school.  

However, does a standardized test in the 3rd grade and beyond predict college entrance and graduation for dyslexic students?

Dyslexic students struggle on standardized tests. They are multiple choice tests. They are long tests. They have lots of words that the student has to work to decode and read accurately. When you have to work hard to figure out what the word is, you have less energy to then decide what the word(s) mean.

The standardized test measures the dyslexic child's weakness and not their strength. It does not reveal their intelligence, their persistence, or their knowledge. It can lead to the child and teacher feeling defeated.  

Dyslexia is defined as an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader; and most commonly due to a difficulty in phonological processing (the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language), which affects the ability of an individual to speak, read, spell, and often learn a second language. 

School is about reading, writing and speaking. Dyslexia affects all of these. It looks slightly different in each child, but it is that inability to match the smallest part of the spoken word, the phoneme, to the letters and letter groups comprising written language. 

With all of the articles available on the internet, it can be hard to discern which facts are well researched and which ones are fake. Here are four facts about dyslexia that every parent should know: 

Self-esteem is defined as a confidence and a belief in one’s own value. Children spend the majority of their time at school. This environment shapes a sense of worth for many kids. However, school can quickly wreck the self-esteem of a dyslexic child.

 

We know that the achievement gap between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children is present in the first grade. Non-dyslexic children are rapidly improving their reading skills while dyslexic children are struggling to read simple words or learn the alphabet.  Since most parents and teachers equate reading skills with intelligence, the dyslexic child often feels inadequate at school. 

 

These bright students do not read at a level that matches their intelligence and they are often called lazy or dumb.  When we founded the Louisiana Key Academy it was to help students not only excel in school but also sustain or improve their self-esteem.  Since then we have helped hundreds of kids and parents.  The parent story below is just one of many amazing child experiences. 

There is no timeline or short cut to achieving fluency for the child with dyslexia. Reading connected text/stories/books out loud daily is crucial to attain fluency. Children with dyslexia will find this hard and they will not like it, but it will lead to fluency so they can understand the written word as well as they understand the spoken word.

There are three things to look out for when considering hiring a tutor for your child. If your child is struggling to read they may be dyslexic. There are ways to help you identify if your child may have this disability and requires further testing. Finding the right reading and writing tutor can help your child progress toward reading fluency.